Thoughts about Sound

What is my sound work about?

My artistic style to this point is what can best be called “associative documentary”, drawing from real sounds but combining them in new ways which move beyond traditional documentary narrative style. It is similar to the difference between a journalist “covering” an event and a poet writing about the same event. The reporter’s treatment is intended to be fact-based; the poet recreates her own experience at the same event on an intuitive level.

My style of audio art draws upon 20 years in radio, working in both radio art and current affairs. I have also been influenced by the soundscape school of composition, particularly the work of Vancouver composer, acoustic ecologist and feminist Hildegard Westerkamp. Another significant influence was the late Howard Broomfield, whose radio program "The Listener" on Vancouver Co-op Radio demonstrated that no word, thought or sound was too trivial and unimportant to be recorded and broadcast. Consequently, my work and aesthetic is rooted in the familiar, recognizable sounds of everyday experience.

To transform these sounds into the realm of the extraordinary is my goal. The line where information becomes art is something which I continue to explore. Having worked in radio current affairs extensively, real world concerns and issues are always a primary focus (though not to the exclusion of all else). In my journalistic work in recent years, I have focused increasingly on social justice issues such as economic justice, gender equality and environment. Using these themes, my style is somewhat analogous to social realism in visual art.

To work with concrete themes and issues and move them beyond traditional treatments and interpretations is my starting point. I take sounds grounded in political and social reality to evoke an emotional, intuitive reaction rather than a purely intellectual response. The challenge is to speak through the sounds, rather than the words of people explaining the sounds.

As my work progresses, I am becoming more interested in presenting sounds for their own sake, and not merely for their literal and obvious meaning. Tone quality is becoming increasingly important in my work as is texture and rhythm. I explore these elements through many hours of field recording in different situations using as many kinds of microphones as I can find; and by recording in many different acoustics. I then spend many hours in my studio listening and extracting sounds or combinations which are particularly interesting.

My Creative Process

Sometimes I will start with a concept. Other times, the concept suggests itself from the sound. My work is based on field recordings and I consider it very important to use sounds which I have experienced first-hand. To use pre-recorded "sound effects" would dilute the results – to compose with sound, I believe it is necessary to experience the full impact of the sound in its original environment, not just afterwards in the studio.

Working collaboratively with other artists is also an important part of my artistic process. One of my major accomplishments was the creation of the Full Moon audio art camp, now in its sixth year. The camp attracts people who work with sound in all disciplines, providing an opportunity to compare how, for example, a gallery-based audio artist works with sound, compared to a theatre artist or a radio-based artist. Co-production is a dynamic way to bring about new approaches, and the camp itself creates a way for artists to make connections with each other. Working in the isolation of the studio, it is often difficult for artists to find ways to break out of their solitude and work collaboratively.

Recently, I have started to explore new ways to presenting sound to audiences, such as live performance, CD and gallery settings. Nonetheless, “radio as artspace” continues to be a major focus of my work, especially in community radio I believe that our airwaves must return to the spirit of the “Golden Age of Radio", when radio was more than canned music, abrasive ads and news bites. Radio stations were living, growing cultural centres where new forms of sonic expression were created daily.

Radio has yet unrealized potential as a place where art forms such as electronic literature, soundscape compositions, creative documentary and drama can flourish. Radio must once again take its place as cultural producer, not merely a distribution arm for commodified culture, but as a genuine expression of the soul of the people.

So why do I do this?

It’s time to create a world which has space for our own sounds, and especially our own voices. I hope my work somehow helps carve out a little bit of space in the soundscape for all of us. And helps us all believe that, despite the noise around us, our voices matter.

E-mail: fenner@magma.ca

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